Being influential at work isn’t just about holding a leadership position; it’s about earning trust, building strong relationships, and demonstrating expertise in a way that motivates others to take action.
Whether you’re looking to advance your career, spearhead important initiatives, or simply have your voice heard more often, increasing your influence is key. From effective communication to developing emotional intelligence, this guide will help you leave a lasting impact that drives change and supports your professional growth.
How to be more influential at work
To be influential at work, you must convince others of the importance of your efforts and gain their assistance. Colleagues are more likely to help when they have empathy and respect for you—these qualities form the foundation of influence.
There is no one-size-fits-all recipe for becoming more influential at work, but building relationships is the cornerstone of building influence.
Strategies for building your influence
Here are a few practical skills to practice to gain more influence at work.
Improve communication skills
Strong workplace communication skills have many benefits—they show others that you are a clear thinker and build trust. Communicate effectively in all meetings, whether in groups or one-on-one. Before speaking, organize your thoughts and convey them clearly.
When you listen to others in meetings, make sure you listen actively. Don’t do other activities during the meeting that may distract you. Focus on understanding rather than simply waiting for your turn to speak. Try to make your follow-up comments relate to what your colleague just said.
Nonverbal communication is another very important part of communication. When talking to someone, make eye contact. Ensure your body language says that you’re open to what others are saying and that you’re engaged. If you’re meeting in person, lean forward with your body instead of slumping in a chair. If you’re working virtually, turn your camera on so other people can see your face.
Building relationships and trust
Networking is the number one way to build relationships and trust in the workplace. That can happen both formally at work and informally at social events like office happy hours or other social events. It’s important to build trust and to show others that you are likable, consistent, and reliable.
When networking at work, make sure you’re meeting those in other departments. When you have relationships with colleagues in other departments, that makes it easier to collaborate cross-functionally and will make it easier for you to get things done.
Ask colleagues what they like to do outside of work to build relationships at informal work events. You may share similar hobbies, family backgrounds, or sports affiliations. When you like each other as individuals, it will make it easier to work together and to build more influence regarding work tasks.
Seek out mentors
When building relationships, look for people willing to be a mentor. Mentors are those who see talent in you and are willing to dedicate time to helping you build certain skills you need to ascend in the workplace. A mentor can help you get a promotion or another job in the future.
Personal branding and professional presence
Creating a personal brand is important in today’s age of social media. When everyone is glued to their phones, they may not have time to truly get to know you. A personal brand helps differentiate you, showcase your skills, and shape how you’re perceived. Creating a personal brand is important to building influence because it elevates your visibility and credibility in the workplace.
For example, you can leverage social media channels to post about a topic you’re an expert on. That can brand you personally as a thought leader. You could also leverage internal channels to achieve more visibility. This can include commenting on colleagues’ Slack posts or including a favorite quotation in the signature field of your professional emails.
Overcome challenges to building influence
Self-doubt presents a significant challenge for people trying to build influence in the workplace. They might feel unworthy of mentorship or meaningful relationships and may even struggle with the concept of networking.
It’s natural to feel some apprehension when seeking to build influence, but overcoming self-doubt is a skill that can be practiced. Remind yourself of your goals. Practice building relationships and your influence might grow sooner than expected.
Another challenge to building influence is balancing assertiveness and approachability. To build influence, you want others to respect you, which requires assertiveness. But you don’t want to come off as aggressive or pushy. Finding the right balance for you and your workplace will take time.
Influence in a remote work environment
Building influence in a remote work environment can be more challenging because you don’t have the benefit of being seen physically in the office. That lack of visibility could mean that when there’s an open promotion, you don’t pop up in others’ minds as quickly as someone who does work in-office or is more visible in remote communications.
It can also be harder for you to build informal relationships that would naturally happen in an office. Likewise, you may miss nonverbal, physical cues in large meetings with many people.
Nevertheless, building influence in a remote work environment is important and possible. The skills listed above still apply, but you can add these strategies to your efforts.
Use video calls effectively
Make sure you show up to video calls with your camera on. That helps you maintain presence and build rapport with others in the meeting more easily. Spend a little time chatting about nonwork topics to ease some of the awkwardness of a remote environment.
Having consistent meetings, such as a weekly team or one-on-one meeting, ensures that you can see the same face or faces regularly, which helps establish relationships and build influence.
Stay engaged in meetings
You want to make sure that you are participating actively in video calls. You can nod along to a speaker to demonstrate your engagement. You should also still make eye contact with the speaker instead of looking down at your phone or sideways at another screen.
You can also engage with the video software in other ways, such as posting in the chat function of the call and sending reactions like thumbs up and hearts if your video software supports that functionality.
Conclusion
Gaining influence at work brings numerous benefits, such as smoother project completion, increased peer respect, and potential career progression. You can enhance your workplace influence through clear communication, active engagement, and networking both formally and informally. Try these strategies today to boost your influence at work.
Work influence FAQs
How long does it take to build influence?
Building influence at work can take at least several months, and up to several years. That’s because it takes time to introduce yourself to other people and to work and network with them consistently so that they know you are reliable, easy to work with, and good at your job.
How can I measure my influence?
You can measure your influence by seeing if you can progress toward your goals in the workplace, be that securing a promotion or getting projects completed.
How can I maintain influence if I transition to hybrid or remote?
If you transition to a hybrid or remote workplace, you can still maintain influence by showing your engagement in other ways. Have consistent virtual meetings, make sure you’re listening actively in those meetings, and use other channels, such as chat, to show others you’re paying attention and engaging with colleagues.